All posts tagged ‘fun’

Last Christmas I shared with you my fun/odd tradition of writing Pirate Christmas Carols. Most of those were written on my personal blog, where I would write the first verse and have friends add verses in the comments. So here’s your chance to combine pirate geekery with Christmas!

The Pirate Was A Gentlemen(To the tune of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen)
The pirate was a gentleman when he took all my loot.
His smile was quite debonair, a shine upon his boot.
“Sweet lady, give me all your coins. I’d really hate to shoot.
Many thanks, this encounter’s been a joy, been a joy.
Many thanks, this encounter’s been a joy.”

What happens? What’s the next verse? Get creative, silly, and don’t worry about anything but having fun!

Kids who spend their spare time reading, playing video games, or tinkering with electronics are not getting the same exercise as kids who are sports fanatics. I have often lamented that my favorite hobbies may be good for my brain, but not so good for my body. Star Trek fandom is not known for powerful physiques.

Exercise is always that extra thing I have to do because moving my body was not part of my regular childhood day. My husband read fantasy novels and played RPGs with his friends, but he was also a star basketball player, and lifted weights for fun (I’m not kidding.) Now as an adult, if he doesn’t move his body on a regular basis, he is out of sorts. Exercise is a part of his lifestyle. I want that for my children too.

Looking for a suitable costume that only those “in the know” will appreciate? Want a costume that can take five minutes or weeks to create, depending on your interest and ability? Hoping you can find a costume idea that involves your whole family, network of friends, or the universal geeky community?

Have A Very Munchkin Halloween! This is the year we shall all choose our favorite Munchkin card (or cards) and dress up, in our separate locations, but together in gamified unity. Hold the Potion of Confusion! Wear the Kneepads of Allure! Be the Large Angry Chicken!

Join the Facebook group and post pics, or just have a great time with your group of friends having good, clean, nerd fun. If you happen to be trick-or-treating around my neighborhood, you can appreciate my Bow With Ribbons.

Call me old fashioned, but I still like writing longhand. My handwriting’s inconsistent, switching between print and script willy-nilly, and generally a mess of dropped strokes and unnecessary serifs. Notebook paper doesn’t have built-in spell-check and I can’t copy-paste or drop-and-drag to replicate or reorder my thoughts. The whole process of composition is slowed from thought through execution. Even correcting errors is a pain.

[Drawn in the margins: Mouse with a ball of yarn for a tail. Cat thinking, "Can haz meme?" and "I am cat for no reason?" Video game controller, pawn, die, Rubik's cube.]

If by its very design handwriting is fraught with obstacles that are easily dodged by using more advanced technology, then why bother? Because negotiating even self-imposed obstacle courses builds character. Because undiscovered freedoms lie within limitation. Because handwriting blurs the lines between linear communication and art. And because it’s fun!

[Self portrait of the author saying, "I feel like a kid again! Doodling on my homework!"]

Try it for yourself and share your experiences and observations in the comments below.

Hasbro has reinvented laser tag for the new generation; the Apple generation that is.

I first learned about the system earlier this year and it looked promising. I’m happy to say that the fleshed out product is just as much fun as it was originally advertised. Compatible with the iPhone (3GS and up) and iPod (4th generation and up), this new laser tag is a ton of fun for the entire family.

Just back from Pi-Con, “The friendliest little convention in New England.” It really was. Both little and friendly. I kept myself quite busy for the weekend selling my family’s TeaPunk line of products in the dealers row, speaking on panels, leading a songwriting workshop, and performing with my band the Subs. My daughter was with me since she’s the artist of TeaPunk and the drummer in my band. There were maybe a handful of younger people there; it’s an adult convention for fans of science fiction and fantasy. She was still happy, since everyone was chatty and nice (and bought her stuff…).

For me, it was great to be around people who like what I like. Total geeks, but in a low-key way. Friday at Pi-Con started off with my daughter leading a fun jam session with percussion. We set up our shop next to great neighbors (The Dragon’s Design and Sunspot Designs) and attended a panel where my GeekmMom t-shirt was applauded (Yay!). The day finally ended with me (minus my daughter) watching a burlesque show. I had never seen one before and it was … OK. I thought it was supposed to be mostly comedy with some strip-tease, but it was strip-tease with some comedy. However, the women were beautiful and voluptuous with gorgeous costumes. My favorite act was Cookie Monster stripping and eating a plate of cookies. Sounds strange, but it was hilarious.

I live in a big city, but this wasn’t always so. I grew up far enough from the nearest metropolis that it was hardly worth heading into town without packing an overnight bag. My son lives with the opposite experience; we now pack our bags to trade streetlights for the moon.

Our campouts are constrained by my work schedule, and as much as we enjoy sleeping under the stars, rain can be a party-pooper. Which means whenever we’re able to head for the hills, we hit the ground running. There’s so much fun to be had in the wild open spaces of the world, and so little time! As a result, I tend to think of camping less as a vacation activity and more like an intensive study on the subject of life, the universe and everything.

Twinkle Toes by Kay Holt

Smart camping demands a certain skill set, and while the specific applications of those skills vary according to the environment you camp in, the basics are universal: Clean water, appropriate shelter, safe food, and first aid. Because our family is atheist and proudly LGBTQ, joining the Boy Scouts isn’t an option for my son. Fortunately, I actually lived outdoors — including sleeping, bathing and toileting — during parts of my childhood, so my camping skills are formidable. I can certainly teach my son the basics.

Igniting, fueling and extinguishing fire are rites of passage. To practice these with a mentor and later to perform them solo … is a big deal for kids. It demonstrates to themselves and to others that they have achieved a measure of independence, and also that they can be trusted with a measure of public responsibility. Other camping skills likewise signal that a person is grown and thoughtful enough to behave sensibly when left to their own devices.

Done right, camping teaches pro-social behavior; self-care and environmental stewardship are my favorites, but there are many others. It’s also a budget-friendly activity, and one that naturally lends itself to fond memories of shared adventures. To say nothing of the prime photo ops.

Ever found yourself sat in a public place and wondered what the people around you are thinking about? Turns out the general public is thinking about some pretty odd things every day, and some people are willing to pay to find out the answers.

63336 is a UK based company which provides a question-answering service via text message. You can send them any question you like and they will text you back with an answer; in fact, they have provided over 26 million answers already. The service costs £2.50 (around $4) per message — but despite that people have chosen to send in some bizarre, amusing, and sometimes downright worrying questions, which the team at 63336 sometimes share on their Twitter feed. Here are 12 of the oddest questions people have been paying to have answered this year.

1. How much Blu Tack would it take to make a life size model of the last supper?

2. What’s the opposite of a table?

3. If I could spin round on my chair fast enough how long will I need to spin round to move forward in time to Friday?

4. What’s better for making shoes: French stick or bloomer?

5. Why is my unicorn dead?

6. What insurance category would a TIE Fighter go in?

7. Can dwarves grant wishes?

8. Can you get a squirrel up your nose?

9. If pigs could fly how much could I realistically charge for a 10 minute ride around the farm?

10. How much energy would be required by the Death Star to blow up Alderaan?

11. What do butterflies get in their stomach when they’re nervous?

12. Would it be possible to mail someone in a box from England to Australia? How many stamps would I need? The person would be unconscious…

If you think you know the answer to any of these, please comment — we’re dying to know.

Oh, yes. I came in to PAX, and before I lost my nerve, jumped into a seat and managed to catch the very beginning of a game. An enthusiastic worker taught us how to play this mind-boggling strategy, back-stabbing, detail confusing, pretty map game. It lasted FIVE HOURS. And I didn’t notice.

Not as cool as Tyrion, but I tried.

I was engrossed, trying desperately to keep up, not even trying to win–just understand! I made mistake after mistake, but filed them away for the next round. The last hour another group was forming and trying to figure stuff out. I started talking to one of the future players to tell them all the places I went wrong. My strategy was Learning As I Lose.

After I led the Lannisters to their slow, bloody death, I realized I was shaking from hunger and thirst. As I guzzled soup and crackers I realized this was what game addiction is like…awesome! The only reason I made it was Marwyn (see friend from previous post) who stopped by mid-way to give me a large coffee drink.

Saturday dawned on digital Boston with pixels of hope. That or maybe I just had a good night sleep. Either way, my mind was buzzing with gaming ideas (I’ll write in another post) and I was ready to take on PAX East. (See my previous post for why I needed confidence.)

I first stopped by A Game of Thrones: The Board Game Second Edition. I asked quietly if I could sit and watch a game in progress. I pulled up a chair, and tried to be unobtrusive as I was totally baffled by this long, complex board game based on my current favorite TV series. The man next to me started chatting about everything he was doing. I stayed for a half-hour, still confused and not ready to try.

Then I ran into two people that I had gamed with at a previous convention, and in my opinion, had a great time. They barely acknowledged my presence. I walked away. Becca Ego level hit an all-time low.

I gathered my remaining Strength, realized I had other Skills like Obnoxious Optimism, and sat down at a game testing table for Miskatonic School for Girls. After that PAX was a blast.

The game is good, and the art is fantastic.

Met up with friends Nic, Marwyn and Dave for lunch and then they entertained me on RockBand.

They are overwhelmed with the awesomeness of this game.

Nic and I skipped to the table-top area and we tested Castellan (see pic at top). Then on to Eleminis, where we had a good time with four other random people. One of them was a young guy named CJ, whom Nic and I grabbed because he was so cool. The three of us took out Tsuro from the game library because it only had Spanish directions. Unfortunately we did find the English ones, but it was more interesting to try and translate… Then we found twenty bucks on the table, and decided to treat ourselves to ice-cream. The amount just about covered it, and we went to play an RPG. Becca Fun level was peak!

Me and CJ being slick investigators in Leverage RPG.

Being on the GeekMom/GeekDad panel! It was great to finally meet everyone in person!

The audience waving for me :)

The panel was streamed live. It was really fun. My son later told me I need to work on letting other people speak more…thanks, Luke. Afterwards a few of us went to dinner and chatted. Absolutely lovely and talented people that I am so proud to work with.

I got the idea for this experiment, not from the internet or a science book, but from a simple game I developed to teach my five year-old about angles. We call it the Acute Obtuse game, and all it takes to play is a ball and a wall. But balls aren’t the only bounce-able toys. It’s easy to turn wall-ball into flashlight geometry.

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Draw a target on a paper plate, and tape it to a wall or ceiling.

Using modeling clay, stand a discarded CD upright on a paper plate.

Turn out the lights in the room.

Shine a flashlight on the CD and try to angle it so the reflected light hits the target.

For more fun, use a laser pointer and multiple CDs to hit targets hidden behind obstacles!

Note: There are many alternate ways to perform this experiment. Try them all! And let me know if yours show up better on video than ours did. *mutters* I swear, it was gorgeous in person, no matter how wimpy it appeared on camera…

It’s Hanukkah, and in my house that means it’s time to celebrate with science! Tonight, we poured some bubbly and drowned our…raisins. Well, we tried to drown them, but raisins are surprisingly good swimmers. In the video above, my five-year-old explains how “The Raisin Lifting Experiment” works, but even after the experiment was finished and the candles on the menorah were long gone, we were still chatting away about density, volume, buoyancy, and carbonation. Who knew that tossing a few wrinkled snacks into some fizzy-lifting drink could turn into a conversation about the origins of life on Earth?

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Or not. The Layered Liquids experiment has more to do with liquids that don’t mix easily, than the other way around. The most straightforward things to demonstrate by creating this colorful column are density and miscibility, but from there it’s a short conversational tangent to intermolecular force and the hydrophobic effect.

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Pour honey into a clear container.

Pour liquid dish soap slowly down the side of the container onto the honey.

Pour colored water slowly down the side of the container onto the dish soap.

Pour cooking oil slowly down the side of the container onto the water.

Pour colored rubbing alcohol down the side of the container onto the oil.

After liquids have settled into layers and discussion has slowed, STIR THE LIQUIDS!

Roger Bacon said, “Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences. … Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world.” After today’s celebration, my son says, “Mmm, delicious math!”

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

First, open a small bag of multi-colored candies.

Count the candies, and note on a chart how many candies were in the bag.

Sort candies by color and note on the chart how many candies you have of each color.

Repeat several times! (We opened eight bags, one at a time to avoid mixing candies.)

For fun, chart total candies, average candies per bag, and percent of each color.

Translate your data into a bar graph, line graph, and pie chart for easy comparisons.

Hanukkah is the festival of lights, and in my family, we celebrate with illuminating science experiments. Yesterday, we launched a balloon rocket, and today we’re sinking ships. Well, tin foil boats, actually, but this small experiment holds greater drama than you might expect. We thought it would be a simple to float and then sink a couple of flimsy dinghies, but we were surprised but the tiny vessels’ epic buoyancy.

Initially, I’d hoped to introduce the concept of density to my son, but the ‘Floating and Sinking’ experiment provides an excellent gateway to talking about volume, fluid displacement, and the many other contributions of Archimedes, including the origin of “Eureka!” as the go-to exclamation of scientific discovery. As an added bonus, this — like all good experiments — gives the opportunity to practice the scientific method. Of course, sometimes the most fun is had when the experiment doesn’t go as planned…

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Shape a boat from tin foil.

Drop it in a container of water to see if it floats.

Crumple the foil boat to see if it sinks.

If not, shape another foil boat and float it.

Place objects, like pennies, paper clips or small magnets, in the boat until it sinks.

Repeat!

Special note: In honor of Archimedes, try this experiment at bath time!